Jesus and politics, strange bedfellows…

Pastor Dave Henderson

Saturday

Oct 13, 2018 at 3:00 PM

Probably the best politicians are those who don’t go around with a weapon in their hands or a voice that forces people to agree with what they’re saying or doing. Those for instance, who don’t ask you for money, at every turn or scare you into believing that if you don’t believe in them you’re going to hell in a hand basket.

While they say politics is a dirty business, the best politicians don’t keep digging up dirt on their opponents and slinging it slanderously and recklessly all over everybody.

The question is where do we find such people? Who or where among us, running for office, or personal, acclaim, doesn’t have skeletons in their closets or temperaments that prevent them from staying emotionally neutral in all circumstances?

Where do you find a person who hasn’t played both sides against the middle and sided with something or someone entirely different? As we have said for a number of years, politicians… do make, “strange bedfellows.”

And for that matter so did Jesus. His so-called temperament and persuasion was all about, “the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed” as Luke 4:16 says.

Along with his motley crew of ordinary women and men the Spirit that drove the Jesus campaign was concerned about those who didn’t have much. Shakespeares” phrasing captures this best when he says, “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

So it is then that the best politicians are basically concerned about where people hurt and how they live together and get along. Jesus’ politics has as its driving force the Spirit of Love and care. While always tempting, materialism, power and self-interest are not the party’s main planks. Jesus leaves the wilderness empowered by the spirit of inclusion not exclusion. Politics is about everyone or no one, all or nothing. Nobody is left behind.

Pay your taxes and render unto Caesar what is his, but not to the benefit of the rich. Feed people, educate them, provide for their healing and health. Let the children come for all of our parents were immigrants. Entertain no more wars and killing. Don’t force or threaten and don’t cut spending that hurts the least of these. Identify with people where and when they hurt. That’s Jesus’ main political priority.

Maybe Jesus was not a politician after all, even though he came to show and teach us the art and science of how to live together. Without forming a party, adopting a platform and organizing a protest, he became a threat to the powers that were.

From his early days when Herod sought his demise, and finally Ceasar laid him to rest, he was considered traitorous. But sometimes the best politicians act that way… Jesus and politics… strange bedfellows…

Because when it’s all said and done the best politicians don’t put their party loyalties first, they put people first. There are no preconditions to who they side with. Their political agenda is not about them or even who’s been good or bad to them. Their future takes them to where people are hurting, poor, captive, blind or oppressed. The best politicians play no favorites and have no boundaries. There are no isles to cross, only bridges to be built.

A God who comes to make a bed with the likes of you and me is very strange indeed. “Gods” don’t come down too often or too long.

They stay up and mix with their own kind. They cater to those loyal to them and who will protect them in times of trouble.

If Jesus had a political platform, it was more about collaboration and cooperation than control and consequence.

The risk to stand with whoever for the right thing or reason is always at the risk of one’s own demise.

“Come Grow Old With Me” is a series of articles written by retired Presbyterian Minister David N. Henderson. David has retired from the First United Presbyterian Church in Sault, Michigan and is now living out his retirement with his wife, Leslie, in DeTour, Michigan.

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